Thursday, October 23, 2014

You can take the taxpayer to the cleaners, but...

The above chart from the Heritage Foundation is offered for a little context to the news from the Treasury that fiscal year 2014 produced over $3 trillion in tax revenues for the first time ever. Which is still only about 17.5% of nominal GDP. Less than the six decade average (post-WWII) of slightly over 18%.

Another fun Heritage chart shows the change in revenues from different income earning groups over the years since 1980. Highlights being that the bottom 50% of earners have seen their 'contributions' drop steadily over the three decades since Jimmy Carter was last in office (1981), from almost 7.5% of revenues to only 2.36% in 2010 (while earning about 12% of the income).

Who picked up the burden from the slackers? The 'rich' of course, as the top 10% of earners (with 45% of all income) paid almost 70% of the income taxes.

Oh, yeah, the government that took in $3 trillion also spent $3-1/2 trillion.